The two latest additions to the burgeoning DISC1 literature provide additional support for a role of this gene in cognitive function and schizophrenia, and suggest that more comprehensive studies will be useful as we move to a greater understanding of its role in CNS function. Koike et al. (2006) found that a relatively common mouse strain has a naturally occurring mutation in DISC1 resulting in a truncated form of the protein, similar in size (exon 7 vs. exon 8 disruptions) to that observed in the members of the Scottish pedigree in which the translocation was first detected. C57/BL/6J mice, into which mutant alleles were transferred, displayed significant impairments on a spatial working memory task similar to one used in humans (Lencz et al., 2003). These data are similar to those observed by our group (Burdick et al., 2005) and others (Callicott et al., 2005; Hennah et al., 2005; Cannon et al., 2005), although no study to date has utilized the same neurocognitive tasks. Lipska et al. (2006) report that genes and proteins (NUDEL, FEZ1) known to interact with DISC1 are also aberrant in schizophrenia postmortem tissue, with some evidence that DISC1 risk polymorphisms also influence expression across the pathway.

Taken together, these two papers suggest that the assessment of genes involved in the DISC1 pathway may be worthwhile in the evaluation of working memory function. To date, most studies have focused on risk alleles within DISC1, with little attention paid to the critical interacting genes. Studies are now underway assessing the relationship between FEZ1 and NUDEL and risk for schizophrenia in a number of populations, as well as studies examining their role in neurocognitive and neuroimaging parameters. Clearly, as the Lipska paper indicates, studies that attempt to assess multiple genes in this pathway will be critical, although the common concern of power in assessing gene-gene interactions, especially across multiple genes, may be a limitation. Moreover, these studies indicate that interaction studies will need to consider additional phenotypes other than diagnosis, and perhaps “purer” tasks of neurocognitive function may be worthwhile, as suggested by Koike et al. Finally, both of these papers underscore the fact that the next wave of genetic studies of schizophrenia will encompass the use of multiple probes, whether with neurocognitive assessments, postmortem analyses, or animal models of disease, amongst others, to fully validate the relationships between putative risk genes and the pathophysiology of schizophrenia and related disorders.

References:

Burdick KE, Hodgkinson CA, Szeszko PR, Lencz T, Ekholm JM, Kane JM, Goldman D, Malhotra AK. DISC1 and neurocognitive function in schizophrenia. Neuroreport 2005; 16(12): 1399-1402. Abstract

Callicott JH, Straub RE, Pezawas L, Egan MF, Mattay VS, Hariri AR, Verchinski BA, Meyer-Lindenberg A, Balkissoon R, Kolachana B, Goldberg TE, Weinberger DR. Variation in DISC1 affects hippocampal structure and function and increases risk for schizophrenia. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2005 Jun 14;102(24):8627-32. Epub 2005 Jun 6. Abstract

Cannon TD, Hennah W, van Erp TG, Thompson PM, Lonnqvist J, Huttunen M, Gasperoni T, Tuulio-Henriksson A, Pirkola T, Toga AW, Kaprio J, Mazziotta J, Peltonen L. Association of DISC1/TRAX haplotypes with schizophrenia, reduced prefrontal gray matter, and impaired short- and long-term memory. Arch Gen Psychiatry, 2005; 62(11):1205-1213. Abstract

Hennah W, Tuulio-Henriksson A, Paunio T, Ekelund J, Varilo T, Partonen T, Cannon TD, Lonnquist J, Peltonen L. A haplotype within the DISC1 gene is associated with visual memory functions in families with high density of schizophrenia. Mol Psychiatry 2005; 10(12):1097-1103. Abstract

Lencz T, Bilder RM, Turkel E, Goldman RS, Robinson D, Kane JM, Lieberman JA. Impairments in perceptual competency and maintenance on a visual delayed match-to-sample test in first episode schizophrenia. Arch Gen Psychiatry 2003; 60(3):238-243. Abstract

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